Experience

Policy Director, Interim Campaign Manager – Friends of Emily Myers In 2019, Emily Myers, PhD ran for Seattle City Council District 4 as a scientist and union leader, advocating for evidence-based policies to address our climate crisis and homelessness crisis in Seattle. I worked as her volunteer policy director, developing a multipart policy platform, responding to policy questionnaires for over 40 organizations which led to endorsements from Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and over 20 labor unions. As the policy lead, I met with experts in city and county housing, transportation, and behavioral health policy and integrated up to date data & expert testimony to lay our her policy platform. Dr. Myers was 3rd in a field of 10 candidates in the August top-two primary and received across-the-board praise for her thorough plans and policies. I also served as her interim campaign manager: hiring staff, managing the budget, and coordinating meetings for the first four months of the campaign.

Co-Founder of Washington Science Policy Network In an effort to increase collaboration with graduate students across Washington State, I cofounded WASPN in 2018. We collaborated with groups at WSU Pullman and WSU Health Sciences to hold a Research America Non-Partisan candidate forum in the run-up to the 2018 mid-term election with candidates for congress and the state legislature attending. WASPN continues to facilitate intrastate collaboration amongst student-led science policy groups at UW and WSU.

Co-Founder and Policy Lead – Scientists Advocating for Representation, Justice, & Equity (SARJE) Developed to promote anti-racist, feminist culture in STEM, SARJE has fought for increased diversity in hiring and seminar series, better anti-harassment training, and more thorough data collection and climate assessment with the UW Medical School and Graduate School. In my role as policy lead, I have coordinated with the UW Medical School to write a climate survey, assessed results, and written up policy recommendations to improve mentorship quality and reduce incidents of discrimination. I have also worked to increase awareness of the AAAS SEAChange pilot program and push UW administration to become a pilot institution.

Leadership Board – UW Science & Policy Committee As a student leader in the Science Policy Committee, I have helped organize the annual white paper project, teaching other graduate students how to write policy white papers, coordinating with local organizations to pair them with student white paper groups, and supporting groups in editing and pitching their white papers to policymakers. I also help coordinate the Lunch & Learn series, a semimonthly career chat featuring a science policy professional answering questions about their career path.

Advocacy Experience & Accolades

Presenter 2018 Society for Neuroscience Policy Session on Candidate Forum

Presenter 2018 Society for Neuroscience Science & Society Session on Advocating for Justice & Equity in STEM

2018 Awardee Research America Bipartisan Civic Engagement Grant

2018 AAAS Sponsored Attendee at Making Our CASE workshop

2018 Rally for Medical Research Advocate

2018 Huskies on the Hill Lobbying Day

Presenter – Engage Science Communication Seminar “Intro to Science Policy” Lecture 2019, 2020

2018 Husky 100 Awardee for work advocating for equity in STEM